


Love in the Times of Death

by vogue91



Series: Playlist Challenge [1]
Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Season/Series 03 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 14:57:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7537216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vogue91/pseuds/vogue91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Playlist challenge, depiction of various characters up until the 3rd season.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love in the Times of Death

**Characters:** Anne Boleyn, Mary Tudor, Charles Brandon, Thomas More, Henry Tudor, Eustace Chapuys, George Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Thomas Cromwell  
**Pairings:** Henry Tudor/Anne Boleyn, Eustace Chapuys/Mary Tudor, Henry Tudor/Anne of Cleves, Henry Tudor/Charles Brandon  
**Rating:** R  
**Warnings:** Spoilers up to 3rd season

**Since You Been Gone – Kelly Clackson**

She counts and counts and counts.  
She counts the time, she counts the floor in steps, she’s done it a thousand times already.  
She waits.  
Waiting on a Frenchman to take away the head from her shoulders.  
“I only have a little neck.” And little faith, too.  
That’s what Anne’s left with.  
A little neck, a fear which is bound to die with her and all the love she feels for His Majesty the King of England, Ireland and France.  
Oh, and he may also be the hand behind the executioner’s axe, but that love stays there nevertheless.  
And that, unlike her, will never die. 

**Fairytale Gone Bad – Sunrise Avenue**

Mary is crying.  
Is crying her heart out, like she never did in her whole life.  
When her mother died, she didn’t cry this much.  
But now, in the arms of Ambassador Chapuys, faced with her failures, she can’t help it.  
“My poor sweet lady.” the man says, in a whisper, which makes her cry even more.  
And then Mary raises her eyes and looks at him.  
He’s always been there. He’s been her only friend through all her tribulations. He’s...  
She offers him her lips in a kiss, and she’s surprised it doesn’t feel wrong.  
“Excellency...” she whispers, but he doesn’t let her go on.  
“My Lady.” Chapuys says, and he’s sad. “I’m here, as I’ve always been. As long as you wish.”  
Maybe, Mary thought, that too young, too silly girl was wrong about her.  
She wasn’t necessarily bound to be alone. 

**How’s a Man Supposed to Change? - Blue**

_“When she consents to make love to me again, strike a medal to commemorate it.”_  
Charles’ surprised he can joke about it.  
Surprised he can, with him.  
But as much as he’d like to blame the King for the way his marriage’s turned out to be, he can’t.  
It’s not Henry’s fault he decided to obey to his orders.  
He could’ve walked away.  
Walked away from Pontefract and from all those ghosts that are haunting him at night still, that have spoiled his marriage, that have driven his soul away.  
But he laughs when Henry does, and as bitter as his laughter is, he’s happy he can still feign it for His Majesty’s pleasure.  
Charles walks out the door, and the happiness walks out with him.  
He stops, for a moment, than sighs.  
He’s got nowhere to go to, nowhere where he’ll find a love different than the one his ghosts are granting him every second of his life. 

**Losing My Religion – R.E.M.**

Thomas doesn’t hope anymore.  
He’s lost hope the day he first refused to take the oath.  
He knows Henry’s suffering for this betrayal, but he can’t help it.  
He had sworn to himself that he was never to make the King suffer for his believes, and now here he is, locked up in the Tower, his papers and ink brought away from him, his dignity and his family out there, waiting for him to swear a lie to damn his soul forever.  
He can’t. Not for the love he bears to Henry, nor for the one he has for his wife and children.  
He’s not afraid to die, cause he know he’s going in a better place, that he’s spilled blood to grant himself that place.  
Scared, though, of leaving this place in the current state, leaving all these lost souls, leave a world where one can be beheaded because he can see the country’s spirit rotten.  
But no, he won’t take the oath.  
“I’m sorry, Henry.” he murmurs, closing his eyes.  
He’s looking to God first. 

**Where You End - Moby**

It’s Charles.  
Henry watches him getting closer, and he can’t catch his breath.  
He thinks about everything that he has left behind.  
He thinks about Catherine and Thomas, about Anne, about Cromwell.  
He’ll never say this out loud, but he knows all too well he has lost his place in Heaven a long time ago.  
But when he looks at the man that now’s in front of him, suddenly everything disappear.  
He forgets about his failed marriages, about the head he’s cut off people who loved him, he forgets about his mistakes.  
He wishes he could do something to show Brandon what he feels, but he can’t.  
Tell him that he couldn’t find to love of an everlasting love because of him, because he’s always been by his side, all this time.  
He reaches out to touch him, but that too, he can’t. It’d be too much.  
“Does the Duchess love you any better, Charles?” he asks instead, like he doesn’t care.  
And oh, how good he is in pretending he’s sorry.  
But that’s what they’re bound to. If they are to be unhappy, he’d rather see them living the same kind of sorrow. 

**Taiyou no Namida – NEWS**

Chapuys is tired.  
Tired to go see the Lady Mary so often, tired to tell her that everything will go well and then being unable to be true to that promise.  
And when she starts crying because of that…  
He can’t even begin to describe the way he feels for England’s new Queen, not now that she’s hurt the woman he cares for so much.  
He’s at a loss for words, he wishes he could actually something to make her feel better, and that’s when she surprises him.  
He’s dreamt about the taste of those lips countless times, and right now he can’t even make it out, not now, not with the way he caught him off guard.  
But he accepts it, and accepts everything that she wants to give to him.  
Because this may very well be just a kiss, and he’s too old and too tired of this life to hope for anything more, but he doesn’t care.  
He wants to part from this world knowing he’s done everything in his power to ease her pain.  
And then, he’ll rest too. 

**Impossible - Shontelle**

“Have you or have you not had carnal relationship with your sister, the Queen Anne?”  
George wants to laugh.  
Well... he’d love to, if he didn’t know he was about to lose his head on a meaningless accusation, made out of fear.  
He could as well confess to other sins, and many, but he knows Mark is somewhere inside this same hideous Tower, been questioned on the same impossible matter.  
So he doesn’t answer. He smirks, shrugs off, because it doesn’t really care what he says, not anymore.  
“We’ve got your wife corroborating the story, Boleyn. You can’t deny it.” Cromwell says, smiling, like he’s nailed him on this, like he can’t escape.  
Oh, but George knows too well he can’t. He knows too well his wife could have said a lot of terrible and true things about him, but she instead stroke him with a false one.  
Very clever.  
“I didn’t have any inappropriate relation with my sister, my Lord Cromwell. But I suppose it doesn’t matter, does it?”  
The Lord Chancellor smiles, and he doesn’t answer.  
George’s not ready to die, but he’s not afraid.  
They can say whatever they want about him.  
He’s got his way paved to Hell, and he can’t wait to be there. 

**The Clock Ticks On – Blackmore’s Night**

Anne is very happy.  
She’s left home afraid, very much afraid, that she would’ve ended up like Queen Catherine or, worse, like Anne Boleyn.  
She didn’t, in the end.  
She’s done her best to please the King. She’s suffered the humiliation, she’s heard a lot of things she wished she hadn’t.  
And she has won.  
The King now sits in front of her, divorced from their marriage and she still has her head on her shoulders, she still has his respect.  
She has him asking to share her bed, and she’ll let him, because he is her King, and Anne is not one to displease His Majesty.  
She smiles, after he’s spent himself inside her.  
He may have taken her as a joke for a wife.  
Well, now the joke’s all on him. 

**Caged – Within Temptation**

Thomas knew this would’ve come, eventually.  
He has watched others being loved by the King, and being killed for that same love.  
He also knows his passing won’t be peaceful, for too many people in England hates him.  
Let them hate. Let them see like Satan’s messenger.  
Believe in all your images of saints, in all your candles and decoration, and gold, and depravity.  
He’s lead the King to the right way for all this time.  
And now, for being loved and respected so much, he must die.  
He must die watching his son in the eyes, just become a father himself; he must die watching those who planned this fall for so long, watching their smiles and their happiness to his misfortune.  
And he’ll do so, willingly.  
He’ll be in Heaven, waiting hungrily for all their times to come. 

**Trouble - Pink**

“Your Majesty, I think we must think better about...”  
Henry kisses him again, and again, and again.  
“I’ve thought about it. I’ve thought long, and now I’m acting on it. Now, you’re asked to shut up and take it like a man.” the King tells him, and Charles feels like laughing.  
He knows better by now, though.  
He’d love to ask the King what excuse he’s found now to justify this new sin he’s about to commit, but he imagines Henry right now wants his head to be put to better use than it’d have on a stump, so he shuts up.  
He pretends he’s not enjoying this, because Henry can’t always have them easy. He pretends to resist a little bit, but then he give in, and he feels alive, like it hasn’t happened in years.  
He doesn’t care that this is wrong, doesn’t care what will happen from now on.  
He cares only for that fire in his veins that he thought to be long gone.  
“Thank you.” he says to Henry, short of breath, and the King laughs of him.  
But he’ll take this too. Like a man.


End file.
